1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an electronic device and an information processing system. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to: an information processing system including a controller which combines a means of measuring a bioelectric potential with a means of manipulating an electronic device and an information processing apparatus, such that, when a user manipulates the information processing apparatus, a bioelectric potential signal of the user can be simultaneously measured; and a method and program for achieving the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been an increasing need for simplified manipulation in information processing systems such as television sets, personal computers, game machines and smartphones. A manipulation means for such things may be a controller. While facing a display device such as a television set, a user may hold a wireless or wired controller, and, through manipulation of the controller, utilize an application that is executed on the information processing system. For example, in a game machine or the like, while a controller is held in both hands, operation buttons that are assigned to both hands are manipulated by the two hands to play a game. In the case where a means of bioelectric potential measurement is also provided, as is contemplated in the present disclosure, it becomes possible to measure an electrocardiogram or the like, thus enabling monitoring of health states, estimation of psychological states during the game, and so on.
However, while the manipulation scheme of manipulating operation buttons by using both hands may permit versatile control, the need for complex and accurate timing-based manipulation makes the scheme susceptible to influences of handedness, e.g., right-handed or left-handed. When a controller is to be held in both hands, right-handedness is the assumed norm; the problem is that this makes the device difficult for a left-handed person to use in manipulations of making up/down/right/left moves. Also from the standpoint of usability, in the case where it is not clearly known how the controller is to be held, the controller may end up being held in the opposite orientation. Such a situation needs to be overcome by an arrangement such that manipulation is equally permitted in the opposite orientation, or a notice to the user that the manner of holding is wrong when the controller is indeed held in the opposite orientation.
Thus, in a scenario where a controller is to be held in both hands, a plurality of manners of holding are conceivable. An ability to detect how it is held would make for an improved operability.
In conventional means of bioelectric potential measurement, it is required that electrodes for potential measurement be accurately mounted, and a method for determining their accurate mounting have been proposed. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 2002-233513 and 2009-261723 disclose techniques of issuing a notification of wrong mounting based on the waveform and amplitude of a measured bioelectric potential.